The present invention relates to data center infrastructure, and more particularly, this invention relates to Ethernet switches capable of layer 2 packet switching without the use of a look-up table.
In packet-switched network switches, look-up is typically performed on a destination media access control (MAC) address or a destination internet protocol (IP) address to discover an actual destination port of a switching device for forwarding the packet. Most systems utilize a switching processor of some kind, such as an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), for this determination. The switching processor maintains look-up tables for performing the look-up resolution, which in typical networks may be rather long, possibly having thousands of entries. The look-up tables are either stored on chip or stored external to the chip. In either case, the use of a look-up table adds significant logical complexity, space, and memory requirements on the chip. This additional complexity eventually adds more latency and makes the chip more expensive than is desired. Accordingly, it would be beneficial to be able to discover an actual destination port without the use of a look-up table.